Working Japanese Moms

Apologies for the recent update drought. Joe's currently out visiting the Motherland, and Yoshie's in Kansai for a couple weeks, so I've been a bit busy preparing for her arrival and spending some time with her since she got in Sunday evening.

I noticed this recent survey over at What Japan Thinks (原因), asking mainly about the support that working mothers receive both at work and at home from their husbands. As you may already know, I have somewhat of an interest in the marital/breeding habits of the Japanese and their foreseeable social and economic consequences. Notably, I was a little surprised on two points.

First, that while 81% of women cited their reason for working as "To support the family budget for food, daily expenses, etc," only 33.3% chose "To advance my career, because I want to work." Perhaps the Japanese women I know aren't a legitimate statistical sampling, but I think many (or even most) of my younger female peers seem primarily driven right now by their careers. Thinking about it further, however, this statistic begins to make more sense. While I didn't see any percentage breakdown by age group of those surveyed, it may be safe to assume that 33.3% represents a majority of the younger women polled. Also, it's also extremely likely that those women who place a high priority on advancing their career either aren't married or don't have children.

Second, I was also surprised that a majority of working mothers surveyed are satisfied (at least to some degree) with the support/cooperation they receive from their husbands, considering how notorious Japanese men are for spending all day and night at the office and never seeing their families. Then again "support" and "cooperation", 「育児スサポート」and 「協力」 are vague terms in my mind. If I'm interpreting the Japanese data correctly, it looks like mothers from higher income households tended to be more satisfied with their husbands, so perhaps financial support as opposed to physically helping out with the kids is the key bit of information here.

I think it's important to understand and address the concerns of young Japanese women regarding motherhood. It seems to be a common conception (and of course not unique to Japan) that when women have children, their working lives are effectively over. I can see how that could be the case in many instances - after all, carrying a child to term takes a lot of time and energy, as does taking care of said child. I'm not of the mindset that women need to stay home with the children, though, although I don't see that social pattern changing here any time soon. When I was young, both my parents worked. For a while my sister and I had babysitters, and at times my parents would arrange their work schedules so that one of them would be home with us while the other was working. Then when my dad's health went into decline, he retired and stayed home with us while my mom worked during the day.

I'm not sure if many Japanese women don't want to have children (at a younger age, anyway) these days because of work concerns or just because they aren't that interested in having a family, but as the prior is more easily addressed, I hope it's something that will change in the coming years. While I think full-time child-rearing is a worthwhile calling for either a mother or a father, I can understand why many women would balk at the idea of having children if it means permanently passing up the chance at a meaningful career.

Raising a family isn't for everyone, but any society that boasts gender equality should encourage women to pursue both career and family if that's what they want.

このアンケートは興味深いと思う。僕はこんな日本の育児や結婚や生殖に関することになんだか興味ありますから。日本人の女性の職業と家族の心配は大事だと思う。知り合いの若い女性は、沢山の女性は仕事と職業は一番大事だと思う。出産したら職業の人生終わると思ったら、その考え方よくわかる。現代の日本はそれは普通だと思います。

僕は子供のときに、両親は両方働いてた。ベビーシッター何人かいて、あとで両親は一人で僕と妹と一緒にいるためにスケジュールを計画して別な時間に働いてたんだ。お父さんは病気になったら、引退して僕らに面倒みた。

僕の考え方は、子供を育てることは両方の両親協力した方がいい。したかったら、両方は働いていい。一人は仕事やめたら、女性ても男でも、家庭と育児はすごく大事な仕事だと思う。